Enough to do and see in Thailand!

Sawadee ka/krab!

We already started our third week in Thailand now, time flies when you're having fun! During the last two weeks we again discovered a lot more of this diverse country.
As mentioned in our previous blog, in our second weekend we went to Koh Chang, one of the amazing islands of Thailand. It was a quite long journey, after our seminar session we took off with the taxi to Mo Chit. To continue by train, followed by bus where we arrived at Trat. Where we continued with a taxi to the boat, after arrived on the island we took another taxi and finally we arrived at the destination with a pick-up truck, Cliff Cottage. All together it took us almost as long as flying from Frankfurt to Bangkok! Our cottage you can say was quite primitive, with just a bed and a mosquito net. So, this was already a good preparation for our adventure in the hill-tribe!
That evening we had a relaxing night on the lounge terrace with sea sight. The next day Nienke-Marije, Reinier, Marlon and Susan woke up at 5 o'clock to see the incredible sunrise at the pier. After the breakfast we went to the city of Bang Bao and we arranged ourselves a private boat for diving, which was fantastic! We have been diving 10 meters deep and enjoyed the sea life. Afterwards we have sailed around a cliff where we saw a lot of monkeys. Unfortunately Jonien got bad news from home that evening and therefore we left early Sunday morning to Bangkok. Overall Koh Chang was a great experience!

This school week we had class from the CBT-I with Pai, who will also be our guide in Chiang Mai and someone who called himself the 'father' of REST, which is now known as CBT-I. Regrettably it was just the four of us this week since Nienke-Marije was lying in bed with food-poisoning and Jonien went back to Holland. With the CBT-I we discussed all about the Thai culture and CBT-I. On Wednesday we had a Bangkok trip to experience some Thai culture for ourselves. We have seen several temples, the lying Buddha, the Golden Mountain, the Grand Palace and we had an interesting interview with the Empower Foundation. Afterwards we went for dinner and looked around in the Pattpong area. Happily Nienke-Marije was also able to join us on Thursdays session where we discussed our Bangkok trip.

We did not have class on Friday since we planned to go to the Elephant Festival in Surin. We left very early Friday morning, at 5.45 to go by taxi to the train-station. Luckily we made it to be there at half past 6 to get our train to Surin! At 12.15 we arrived at the train-station of Surin and we directly checked in at our hotel, which was next to the train-station. We actually expected way more of Surin, the town was not that big and touristic at all. However we amused ourselves by walking around and checking out the area where the elephant festival would be the next day. In the evening we went to a light & sound show which was a little disappointed and besides, we where very cold. We definitely noticed that Surin is way colder already in the evening than it is in Bangkok! The next day we woke up early to go to the Elephant Festival at the stadium. Luckily we could still get tickets for it, for 300 baht. We had a great place! In the middle of the stadium, second row and on the sunny side. It started at around 9 and we have seen the 300 elephants during the show. It was really great and funny as well to see what those elephants can do! They where playing football, where painting, dancing and a lot of more great tricks! At 11 o'clock the show was finished, it was definitely amazing! Further we have been walking through the town and made an elephant taxi trip! Which was also a nice experience, these elephants where just walking through the streets and among the traffic. All the Thai people in this town where staring at us and screaming 'Farang, Falang'! Seems that they almost never see western tourists! In the evening we found a great restaurant, the Farang Connection, where we ordered Wiener Schnitzels and fried potatoes with peans. Something else than rice! :)
Sunday morning we went back to Bangkok early, with the train of 07.55 hr. At 14.30 we where back in our apartments again.

Mondaymorning we have been busy with school and had a lunch at Rangsit. At 14.30 hr we where back at Sita Villa to wait for Jonien, she came back from Holland today! We had a warm welcome for her and we're happy to be with the 6 of us again!

Two weeks to go and our study-time at Rangsit University is already over. We have a lot to do these two weeks, but we're also looking forward to go to Chiang Mai! Still no problems occurred within the group, so we're doing fine! :)

La kon!

Susan, Marlon, Martine, Jonien, Nienke-Marije & Reinier

First days in थाईलैंड..

Sawaddee ka/krab!

Sabai-dee-rue ka?

Welcome on our blog! As part of our study we are in Thailand to do the minor Community Based Tourism, first we study 4 weeks at Rangsit University in Bangkok and after that we will stay 5 weeks in Chiang Mai in a guest house and also with the local communities. We are sure we are going to enjoy our time here!

As you have noticed we already integrated quite well in the Thai community and we even learned a couple of words Thai. We have been in Thailand for almost a week now, and are just starting to get used to different climate and culture. The first day we were rather overwhelmed with the lifestyle of the Thai. It is warm every moment of the day, there are food stands wherever you look and street dogs are laying around all over the city. Even though it is such a completely different world, we have managed to get around quite well the last couple of days. During the weekend we have discovered our surroundings and the city centre of Bangkok by taxi, Tuk-Tuk, skytrain, foot and boat. In most occasions this went quite well, but there were already some moments in which we were tricked by our drivers, or where the taxi driver did not know the way home, and we are sure more of these moments will come in the future. Moreover we have enjoyed the Thai cuisine by going out to little restaurants every single night. We have not been to the Pizza hut once! A lot of different dishes have been tried, for example the fried skin of a salmon, which turned out to be not such a big success for our group. However since we will do research about culinary tourism later on in this minor, it is important for us to try new things.

Moreover we had our first week of school. When you are used to a school such as Stenden University in the Netherlands we could warn you that when you go to Rangsit University you will definitely get lost at least one time during your period there.

The campus consists of at least 12 buildings and offers you, besides educations, a medical centre, a pharmacy, several sporting centers, a shop and several spa centers. We certainly do not have all these facilities in the Netherlands!

The first day of classes we got some introduction lectures about the code of conduct of Thailand and Rangsit University, an introduction lecture about this minor and a lecture of a girl who did the same minor as us a couple of years ago. These lectures were all very interesting and nice to see. Because of these you know a little bit of what to expect during this module . In the evening we had a dinner at the Atrium, the restaurant of the school. This dinner was with the teachers and management board of this module and Stenden Rangsit University. It was nice to get to know those people and have a good dinner with them. Furthermore we had our first seminar about pro-poor and community based tourism and our first fieldwork workshop. During this workshop we worked on aspects that are important for our personal development report. These workshops are about us as an individual and as a group. Also, we had our first Thai class! Here we learned how to do a correct ‘Wai’ and learned our first words and expressions in Thai, which will be very handy. The last workshop we had until now was research. During this workshop we will focus more on the research we will conduct later on in Chiang Mai and the village.

Until now we have done almost everything with the group. Since we are not such a big group this is very easy. Everybody shows him or herself in the group and until now we like each other and we are sure this will remain the same. We have had a lot of fun nights already with a lot of laughter and chats. Last night we organized a movie night, we watched the documentary about cannibal tours. Even though we understood the message of the documentary we failed to see the connection of the movie title with the movie itself. It was kind of outdated and could have been more interesting.

We really enjoyed our first days in Thailand and this weekend we will go to Koh Chang to relax a little bit at the nice beaches over there, so that after this weekend we are ready to start our second week in Thailand!

La kon!

Nienke Marije, Marlon, Susan, Jonien, Martine & Reinier